IT’S GONE
Whispering Bench demolished
The Whispering Bench is gone. Early Saturday morning heavy equipment operators came and began to gouge it out of the earth, while Boca Grande residents gathered around and did their best to protest it. Some tried to block the way of the equipment. Others tried to climb on the equipment. There were epithets thrown, as well as more than one projectile.
Someone in the crowd was heard to say, “They just started a war.”
It’s not as much about the bench as it is about the mentality of those who are moving here. Many of these are people who don’t know or care about the island’s rich history and, more to the point, they don’t know about how things have been done around here for almost 150 years.
But it didn’t matter in the end; the job was done.
So, what could have saved this acoustical amusement? What could have changed this outcome? The first answer is simple – someone should have nominated it as a contributing structure long ago. Almost everything else on the island that is historic has been recognized in one way or another, so why not the bench?
But no one did. So when the current property owners, the Adam family, bought the house in 2017 for $7.4 million, they were unaware of the significance of the bench. We know they learned of it when they secured a demolition permit and eventually went before the Boca Grande Historic Preservation Board for the first time earlier this year, as the bench was immediately brought up in conversation. That means if they weren’t aware of the bench’s importance to the community prior to that meeting in March, they knew after that.
But still, nothing was done.
Then again, The Promenade is gone, too, and very few said a peep about that. When people started overplanting it for the purpose of making it impossible to walk along the seawall, and when we started writing articles about that fact, not many people cared. The primary reason for that was obscure, but one facet is unequivocally true – people who buy expensive homes on the Gulf usually don’t want people traipsing around in their backyards.
Nor do they want them sitting on benches in their backyard.
But the Whispering Bench was in just one person’s yard, and other than a private easement granted to the neighbors, anyone who used the bench would be trespassing on private property.
All over the island, people who don’t understand the flavor of the island have taken down little seaside cottages and caretaker homes to put up huge homes with very little visible green space, just towering walls to be seen from the outside. Fortresses. Usually there’s only two people living in those homes for most of the season.
So why is the bench any different?
We don’t know what the property owner’s thought process was when he made the phone call to have the bench torn down, but we do know at some point they were prepared to pay a lot of money to have it moved to the Gasparilla Island Light (Rear Range Light) by one of the top historic preservation moving companies, Flint and Doyle. The bench had already been accepted and a plan was underway. That is, until the May Historic Preservation Board meeting, when so many in the audience said it needed to stay right where it was.
One move that quite possibly played a part in this drama is when members of the Gilchrist Association confronted BIPS and threatened to sue the organization and, quite possibly, individual board members (a list of each of the board members’ names was asked for). Then it became apparent to those involved that this would be a sticky thing to solve. Which is more than likely why a demo crew showed up Saturday morning to fix the problem once and for all.
Not to mention, at the last Historic Preservation Board meeting when the Adam family presented their plans for a new home to be built on the property at 161/181 Gilchrist, they also asked that the small cottage in the front of the lot, by the street, be changed from historically contributing status to noncontributing. The Board approved the change of status from contributing to non-contributing on the cottage, but voted the house plan down for three reasons.
The Whispering Bench was one of those reasons.
In their words, “The Whispering Bench, located in the southwest portion of the subject parcel, is a resource that is both historic and unique within the Boca Grande Historic District. The Board finds that the feature falls under Guideline 2.1, which mandates that the Board identify such features and take steps to preserve them.”
Lee County Planner Peter Blackwell, who was present at the April meeting, mentioned to the Board that they could make a motion to begin the process to preserve the bench. No action was taken. We asked him after the meeting if it would have made any difference in the owner having the legal right to destroy the bench.
“I’m sorry to hear about the loss of the bench,” he said. “But even if the Board had directed staff to start the designation process at the last hearing, it would not have prevented the owner of the property from taking action.”
Blackwell quoted Land Development Code Section 22-203(5), which states:
Upon the filing of a designation report, no permits may be issued authorizing building, demolition, relocation or excavation on the subject property until final administrative action occurs or the expiration of 75 calendar days from the date the designation report is filed with the Historic Preservation Board, whichever occurs first, unless an appeal of the decision of the Historic Preservation Board is filed. If an appeal is filed as provided in this chapter, the suspension of activities will continue in effect for an additional 35 calendar days from the date the Historic Preservation Board renders its decision or until the rendering of a decision on the appeal, whichever occurs first. The property owner may waive the suspension of activities deadlines set out in this section. Waivers must be in the form of a notarized statement to the Historic Preservation Board for inclusion in the Board’s files. The Historic Preservation Board will notify all affected government agencies of the suspension of activities upon the filing of a designation report. The suspension of activities expires after 60 days if no public hearing is held.
“So until staff filed a written report, the owner could have taken action to demolish the feature,” he said, in summary.
Whose fault was it that this icon of the Crowninshield era is gone? Everyone’s. The Whispering Bench should have been named as historically contributing years ago. But it isn’t the only thing that has fallen to the wayside due to “progress.” It certainly won’t be the last.
What the destruction of the Whispering Bench was, for those who are paying attention, is a severe wake-up call. There are still things on the island that should be preserved; small things, things that we don’t really think about because we’re so used to them.
The world is changing and the island is changing with it, though perhaps a bit more slowly. Gone are the days when one of the richest women in the world hosted pool parties for every child in town, dined with the gardener and sat down at a local establishment next to the grizzliest of captains to talk about tarpon fishing. The care that everyone had for everyone else in this magical place is diminishing.
Could the demolition of the bench be a defining moment in our pendulum swing toward ambivalence, avarice and greed?
Probably not. Many people won’t even remember to talk about it two or three weeks from now. But some will remember. Those of us who keep the history will.
